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These photomicrographs are of the two new species of ancient gall mites in 230-million-year-old amber droplets from northeastern Italy, taken at 1000x magnification. The gall mites were named (left) Triasacarus fedelei and (right) Ampezzoa triassica. Credit: University of Göttingen/A. Schmidt

(Phys.org)—An international team of scientists has discovered the oldest record of arthropods—invertebrate animals that include insects, arachnids, and crustaceans—preserved in amber. The specimens, one fly and two mites found in millimeter-scale droplets of amber from northeastern Italy, are about 100 million years older than any other amber arthropod ever collected. The group’s findings, which are published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pave the way for a better evolutionary understanding of the most diverse group of organisms in the world.

Amber is an extremely valuable tool for paleontologists because it preserves specimens with microscopic fidelity, allowing uniquely accurate estimates of the amount of evolutionary change over millions of years,” said corresponding author David Grimaldi, a curator in the American Museum of Natural History’s Division of Invertebrate Zoology and a world authority on amber and fossil arthropods.

Globules of fossilized resin are typically called amber. Amber ranges in age from the Carboniferous (about 340 million years ago) to about 40,000 years ago, and has been produced by myriad plants, from tree ferns to flowering trees, but predominantly by conifers. Even though arthropods are more than 400 million years old, until now, the oldest record of the animals in amber dates to about 130 million years. The newly discovered arthropods break that mold with an age of 230 million years. They are the first arthropods to be found in amber from the Triassic Period.

1 in 88 children are autistic in the U.S, a jump from 1 in 125 children in 2006. (picture from: http://libertarianreview.us/2012/04/01/thiomersal-still-common-in-vaccines-autism-rates-on-the-rise/)

(NaturalNews)’For many years the stories from devastated parents have been eerily similar. A young, bright child vaccinated with MMR, has minor side effects such as high temperature and being off food, and then develops the debilitating disability of autism.

Whilst the mainstream medical profession deny the link between autism and the triple shot of measles, mumps and rubella, there have been many who have argued to the contrary. Statistics show the increases in autism correlate alarmingly with the introduction and uptake of the MMR vaccine. And Now in an Italian court, there has been a landmark ruling for a child whose parents claim that his autism was triggered by MMR.’

Natural Health News — An Italian court has ruled there is a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. In what may be a ground-breaking decision, the Italian Court of Rimini has ruled that causation between an MMR vaccine and the resulting autism in a young child “has been established.” The unnamed child received the vaccine in March of 2004 and on returning home immediately developed adverse symptoms. During the next year the child regressed, receiving the autism diagnosis one year later and is now 100% disabled by the disease. The Italian court ruled that the child “has been damaged by irreversible complications due to vaccination (prophylaxis trivalent MMR)” and ordered the Ministry of Health to compensate the child with a 15 year annuity and to reimburse the parents of their court cost.

‘Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said the United States pressured Italy to enter the war against Libya.

“What choice did I have considering America’s pressure… President Georgio Napolitano’s stance, and the Parliament’s decision?” the July 30 edition of the Italian daily Corriere Della Sera quoted Berlusconi as saying.NATO launched a major air campaign against the forces of the Libyan regime in mid-March under a UN mandate to “protect the Libyan population.”’